https://www.23andme.com/

If you've ever wondered what your DNA could tell you about yourself but assumed you were too dumb and poor to find out.... well, you're partially right. Unless you are a geneticist, chances are you don't have the laboratory equipment or knowledge necessary to extract your own DNA. However, depending on the size of your wallet, $399 may or may not be a lot of money.

My genetics professor introduced this service to me. 23andme is a company that will examine a fraction of your DNA and send you back a comprehensive report detailing, among other things, your genetic predisposition to certain diseases, your ancestry, and comparisons of your genes to a database of people from around the word. Just for FUN I will mention that TIME Magazine named this the 2008 Invention of the Year. whoaaa..................




How does it work?
They send you a kit in the mail. You spit in it. You send it back. They extract DNA from the cheek cells found in your saliva and use a "DNA chip" to analyze specific parts of your DNA called SNP's (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms - regions in your DNA that vary slightly from one person to the next - Believe it or not, your DNA sequence is 99.9% the same as  every other person's.)

Still, since the human genome contains billions of base pairs, and since the human genome was only recently mapped, sequencing a person's ENTIRE genome is extremely expensive and time-consuming. Of that 0.1% variation (a few million SNP's), they examine 550,000 SNP's that have been scientifically proven to have some sort of correlation with health and disease risks.

Why would you do this?
Most of us are poor teenagers/young adults who can't afford to spend $400 for some DATA and STATISTICS that you can examine. Still, at one point or another in our lives, many of us have heard the hypothetical question of "what would you do if you knew you were going to die soon?" Obviously, this test is not going to tell you that!!! BUT BUT.... the analogy is similar. Many of you would scoff and say "why the fuck would I care? It would be stupid to suddenly change my lifestyle." Others like me may look at things in a different manner - finding out that you have a copy of a gene that has been scientifically linked to a higher risk of Parkinson's Disease or Prostate Cancer might make you curious and lead you to ask your parents about the diseases their parents suffered from. Many other health factors like heroin addiction, baldness, or heart attacks have been shown to be genetically linked at least in part.

More likely, you are a curious person and think it would be really COOL to have a part of your DNA analyzed, later finding out that your DNA shares a lot of similarities with WESTERN AFRICANS, that you have resistance to malaria, or that you have a 1/4 chance of passing on a gene strongly linked to Diabetes to your kids. Sure, if you were planning on having kids soon you and your mate could technically get an individual test done to find out the likelihood of having a child with diabetes or crohn's disease, but who actually does that unless they are already affected with a disease and KNOW they have a chance of passing it on?

Why would I care?
Honestly, I doubt anyone will actually purchase one of these kits (except for nackster or Sarevok maybe lol) but I thought I'd at least share with you guys to let you know that the technology and service exists and is available to the public! DNA sequencing is becoming cheaper and easier every day. Last year this same kit cost $999. Next year it might be $100 or less. My professor is convinced that in the next decade or so, analyzing the DNA of newborn babies will become standard procedure. The impact on the healthcare industry would be ENORMOUS - personalized health care would be just around the block. Doctors would be able to choose a medication or treatment for you that wouldn't necessarily be appropriate for your friend or dad. On the other hand, it would open up doors to genetic discrimination - health providers would want to increase your premiums if they knew you had a higher risk of developing breast cancer.





And before anyone asks - if you send them your sperm instead of your spit, you won't get your money back but you WILL feel rebellious and clever.

  no thanks

Fortunately, the US passed the Genetic Information Non Discrimination Act last year, making insurance companies (for the time being) incapable of charging extra or denying coverage based on genetic data.

My professor is convinced that in the next decade or so, analyzing the DNA of newborn babies will become standard procedure. The impact on the healthcare industry would be ENORMOUS - personalized health care would be just around the block. Doctors would be able to choose a medication or treatment for you that wouldn't necessarily be appropriate for your friend or dad. On the other hand, it would open up doors to genetic discrimination - health providers would want to increase your premiums if they knew you had a higher risk of developing breast cancer.

Gives me flashbacks of Gattaca.

i...impossible.

your genetics...you're more cancer than man...but you should be dead?

I...have already died

*whoosh*

also I am 90% sure someone will hack this and I will get emails IS IT TRUE YOU'RE 99% LIKELY TO HAVE A BABY DICK AHAHAHAHA IM NEVER GONNA FUCK YOU ~A HOT GIRL

Steel you talk about small dicks a lot and I remember you mentioning average dick length more than once as if you were trying to convince yourself about something.

its because i love dick dude. i just...i love dick.

according to some dodgy lab science

you're dumb

genetics? heh try a real science like...math.

There is no way I would waste 400 bucks on this bullshit. Why would I want to know that according to some dodgy lab science I am going to get x disease and die from it or whatever. It would only make me pointlessly panic for the rest of my life, and everything from jobs to relationships would seem pointless and ultimate depressing. Also I don't know how I feel about people who would say "Well I have a 1/4 chance of giving diabetes to my children, but mating with this person will cause me to have a 3/4 chance therefore I shouldn't date them".

There's barely any use for any of this except atm (as atari said) satisfying curiosity and wasting people's money. If they could say like "Okay your kid is likely to have diabetes we can do something about it NOW", great. But it's more likely to be a "Sucks for your kid eh?"

Many of you would scoff and say "why the fuck would I care? It would be stupid to suddenly change my lifestyle."

yup. I totally understand and agree that it would be very stupid to decide to become more selective in your search for a girlfriend/wife based on genetic information, but to call this "dodgy" and bullshit is absolutely incorrect.

As with any subject matter, there are two very convenient stances to take when you don't understand the basic concepts behind it (in this case - the scientific method):

1) Believe everything people tell you (ex. OXYCLEAN HARNESSES THE POWER OF OXYGEN or Tom's of Maine <-- this is the dumber of the two
2) Refuse to believe anything (w.....what is this new technology.... *hugs bunny ears tv antenna till 2028*)

23andme (and other competitors such as Navigenics) can only report about your elevated or decreased risks of various factors if and only if they have been repeatedly verified by numerous scientific studies. No disease or disorder is going to have one magical gene associated with it - the human body is much more complicated than that. Something as seemingly simple as height or eye color is based upon the simultaneous impact of hundreds or thousands of genes.

However, during the process of studying diseases in an attempt to cure them or find treatments scientists successfully discover a few of the genes responsible for certain mutations that can cause disease. Cancer is something that we obviously do not understand fully - in addition to your lifestyle choices, there are probably hundreds of genes that could give you an elevated risk of developing a certain type of cancer. But using breast cancer as an example, we HAVE been able to identify a group of genes - namely BRCA1 and BRCA2 - that in some cases are found to be mutated in over 80 percent of specific types of breast cancer! These are obviously not coincidences.

To sum this up for you, you don't need to understand the intricate details behind biology to understand that thousands of scientists and doctors have independently proven and verified the links between certain genes - and the LIKELIHOOD (do not mistake this for a direct cause) of developing a disease. If only one or two studies have been published about a certain genetic link, 23andme TELLS YOU THIS - and gives you that information in a separate part of your genetic profile.

what if you have downs or whatever do you go to www.23andahalfandme.com

haha thats pretty good. *hi5*

Down syndrome joke? Do you really wanna be that guy?

Down syndrome joke? Do you really wanna be that guy?

we all wanna be that guy. Edgy. as. FUCK!

This is pretty cool, especially as a herald for things to come! The fact that this exists now and is in the AFFORDABLE range (yes $400 is expensive but it's still affordable) is an interesting sign of the future! Especially when you point out that it was $900 not that long ago. Just like LCD TVs, the price keeps droppin......and just like LCD TVs it can "SAVE YER LIFE" -- Sharp Aquos

I read something awhile back about a relatively remote society in the south of India, somewhere near Kerala. Geneticists had taken samples of some people there and found markers in the DNA that traced their ancestors all the way back migrants from the east coast of Africa. Like HARD GENETIC evidence not vague theories of migration. It's cool as hell, I wish I could recall more about the study. Apparently this society did a lot of inbreeding over the centuries which had helped preserve the markers.

fuck your family so the future can know who we were. Thats all I'm saying.

Down syndrome joke? Do you really wanna be that guy?

yeah I've got to get a new style of humor sorry

I blame Comedy Central